Ask HN: Free mail service for custom domains - G Suite alternative

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30006596

by andreinwald • 5 years ago

14 44 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Free alternative to paid G Suite.

Your custom domain. Unlimited amount of users. No storage limit, but attachments stored only for 1 month. Option for saving attachments before deleting. Some safe ads in web client.

Would you register?

em-bee3• 5 years ago

put the question into the title and start with "ask HN:". otherwise this post will be ignored. i almost flagged it as bogus.

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

done

DamonHD• 5 years ago

Possibly

em-bee3• 5 years ago

free or not, i'd rather have a storage limit but no time limit. either way i'd have to forward all emails to my local machine, so the storage won't do me much good other than as a temporary buffer.

with a storage limit the worst that can happen is that mails get rejected, but the senders do get notified. and, if set up well, forwarding should work even if the storage is full, so even rejections would not happen.

with a time limit i am relying on the forwarding always working, and, in case of failure i'd be loosing mail possibly without noticing. because it's attachments from old mail that i am not looking at now that would get deleted. that's not something i'd want to ever happen.

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

Old emails will be saved. But without attachments.

Is it okay for you?

em-bee3• 5 years ago

any system that deletes stuff automatically without oversight is dangerous and can lead to critical loss of data.

the only time it is ok is when it is backups that are superseded by new backups, or a trash storage where i put things manually, and even there i prefer to empty the trash manually too.

but this is just how i am used to working. i realize that i accept messages in irc disappearing if i don't log them too (but then i set up logs for quite a number of channels that matter to me), and i could accept this service for certain use cases like for mailing lists which are usually archived elsewhere anyways.

but i could not use it for emails from family, friends or customers who might send me things that i want to keep.

furthermore, if you consider encrypted email you can't even tell what is an attachment and what is the body. removing the attachment would also affect unencrypted, but signed emails.

marcos100• 5 years ago

No, a lot of times, the attachment is more important than the text of the e-mail.

doctoboggan• 5 years ago

I would register if there was a storage limit and you were prompted to manually delete attachments when you are nearing it. I’d rather do it myself and save what’s needed that risk losing important documents.

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

Good idea! Thanks.

cplli3• 5 years ago

No. I would much rather have a paid plan, with limits. Nothing is free, and an ads model service isn't one I'd move email to.

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

Are you ok with G Suite/Zoho/etc prices?

cplli3• 5 years ago

For my personal email I use the new iCloud+ service, as I already had a plan and they have the "Hide my email" feature which is a plus.

For company email: Fastmail. They're professional, I trust them, the price value ratio is good. Can't complain

maccard• 5 years ago

Not OP but yes. Perfectly happy with the prices, and would be willing to pay more if the featureset provided. The only thing that keeps me on gmail is the inertia of my existing email address.

rosndo3• 5 years ago

Yandex already offers this for free, but without disappearing attachments. You can sign up right now :)

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

No longer so https://360.yandex.ru/business/tariff?from=landing

sofixa• 5 years ago

At 129 RUB(~1.50 EUR)/month, it isn't free but it's drastically cheaper than O365 or G Suite. However i wonder how often it would be blocked by useless "block all Russia and China" firewall rules.

cnbeining• 5 years ago

There is a free version - 10GB mailbox, 1000 seats.

https://admin.yandex.ru/select-organization?productId=free&f...

dym_sh• 5 years ago

whats the point of unlimited storage if stuff that needs it – gets deleted anyways?

mega-silos have 3 major points: reliability, convenience, and network effect.

get 2 of them, add privacy – and its a viable alternative.

----

but no, not personally – i run my own vps with poste.io install – you asking the wrong crowd.

andreinwald10• 5 years ago

IMHO people don't need most of old attachments, and it creates possibility for ADs-based service.

newscracker2• 5 years ago

I disagree completely on this. People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies).

Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people.

beardyw• 5 years ago

I just use redirection to a standard Gmail account. It works.

sh4un2• 5 years ago

You can't have your cake and eat it to. If you want free, build it yourself. Lots of guides out there.

ryandvm• 5 years ago

And it's only free if your time is worthless...

Nasreddin_Hodja• 5 years ago

Only for first time. If you are already experienced, it's not so hard to setup a server. Or you can hire a freelancer to do the job for you.

newscracker2• 5 years ago

No. But if it were with a paid option and no ads or marketing/data sharing partnerships of any kind and if it has limited storage and lets the user manage it (or move to a higher pricing tier), then I might consider it.

I really dislike the per user or per mailbox pricing model followed by some platforms. It gets very expensive to use for a few people in the family.

Copying my other comment on attachments [1]:

People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies).
Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people.

Note the following services that provide what I’ve listed above, except that they don’t meet some other criteria I have:

- Mxroute

- Migadu

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30008723

jasonpeacock• 5 years ago

No, because when a product is free then you are the product.

I'd much rather pay for the services I use (e.g. Fastmail) knowing that there's company who's purpose is to build and support a product for me, not advertisers or some other interest.

TrueGeek• 5 years ago

Relevant SMBC

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/free

panarky• 4 years ago

Just because you pay doesn't mean you're not the product.

StellarTabi• 5 years ago

Free alternative to paid G Suite. > Your custom domain.

I love it! I need more than one domain.

Unlimited amount of users.

For the free tier specifically, maybe organizations otherwise giving you $0 should have a limit like 20 or 100. Or "unlimited users" could be a $10/month addon for the free plan.

No storage limit

too unfair for you, I'd rather pay B2 style prices for each GB past 10GB or something.

but attachments stored only for 1 month.

Surprise deletions are an instant No. Most inboxes just show you your % usage in the corner and allow me to handle deletions on my schedule.

scim-knox-twox• 4 years ago

Fastmail has auto-purge: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000280301-Se...

Auto-purge - Automatically delete messages after they have been in the folder for a certain amount of time, from 1 day to 1 year. Pinned messages are never deleted.

Ask HN: Free mail service for custom domains - G Suite alternative

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